After many popular mystery novels, a radio program and a number of movies, the character of Ellery Queen was at this point firmly established.

"The town with its gossip and cliques is well done ... [one of] the complex and mundane mysteries ... favored by the ingenious authors.

This is the era wherein Ellery Queen experiments with minimalism as his work is stripped down to its most fundamental features.

"[2] "(Ellery's) exploits took place more frequently in the small town of Wrightsville, where his arrival as a house guest was likely to be the signal for the commission of one or more murders.

"[3] The book was made into the 1971 film Ten Days' Wonder directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins and Marlène Jobert as Van Horn father, son and wife/stepmother (their first names changed to Theo, Charles and Helene), and Michel Piccoli as "Paul Regis", who (there is no character named Ellery Queen) is the principal investigator.